August 26, 2017 – Chevalier’s Books – Reading & Signing ‘Coach Wooden & Me’ (Larchmont, Los Angeles)

Join Chevalier’s this Saturday to welcome back the bestselling-author, global cultural ambassador, and literally greatest basketball player of all-time (sorry MJ), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The man, the myth, the legend, will be in-store to discuss and sign his recently released memoir, Coach Wooden and Me, an in-depth reflection on the life lessons instilled upon Kareem by the Coach. Don’t walk, sprint as fast as you can to this talk, reading, q&a and signing.

When future NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was still an 18-year-old high school basketball prospect from New York City named Lew Alcindor, he accepted a scholarship from UCLA largely on the strength of Coach John Wooden’s reputation as a winner. It turned out to be the right choice. Coach Wooden and Me is a stirring tribute to the subtle but profound influence that Wooden had on Kareem as a player, and then as a person, as they began to share their cultural, religious, and family values while facing some of life’s biggest obstacles. From his first day of practice, when the players were taught the importance of putting on their athletic socks properly, to gradually absorbing the sublime wisdom of Coach Wooden’s now famous “Pyramid of Success”; to learning to cope with the ugly racism that confronted black athletes during the turbulent Civil Rights era as well as losing loved ones, Abdul-Jabbar fondly recalls how Coach Wooden’s fatherly guidance not only paved the way for his unmatched professional success but also made possible a lifetime of personal fulfillment. Coach Wooden And Me is at once a celebration of the unique philosophical outlook of college basketball’s most storied coach and a moving testament to the all-conquering power of friendship.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer and a Basketball Hall of Fame inductee. Since retiring, he has been an actor, a basketball coach, and the author of six books for adults and three for children, many of them New York Times bestsellers. Abdul-Jabbar is also a columnist for TIME magazine, writing on a wide range of subjects including race, politics, age, and pop culture, and his essays and columns have also appeared in the Washington Post, in the Los Angeles Times and on  opens in a new windowEsquire.com, among other publications. In 2012, he was selected as a U.S. Cultural Ambassador and in 2016, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He lives in Southern California.